Built in 1925, abandoned in 1983 when an overweight truck damaged it, the historic Hillman Bridge still stands over the Suwannee River.

Historic Hillman Bridge, Suwannee River, Ellaville, Florida, Withlacoochee River Confluence

It has a storied past, starting with the millionaire Turpentine King, Captain Winder Josephus Hillman (1857-1931), who got his start in Live Oak and High Springs and “opened another camp in Inverness before expanding his operations throughout Central and South Florida before becoming a director of the Consolidated Naval Stores Company of Jacksonville, the largest naval stores trader in the United States.” See below for the source and more quotes.

Hillman Bridge is downstream of the CSX Railroad Bridge and the Withlacoochee River Confluence.

RR Bridge and Hillman Bridge –Gretchen Quarterman, 2019-06-01, 15:19:57

It is upstream of the US 90 Bridge between Madison and Lee in Madison County and Live Oak in Suwannee County.

You can get to this bridge from Madison County by turning off US 90 north onto CR 277, then right onto NE Drew Way, and following to its end. From there you can visit the Town of Ellaville marker or walk on across Historic Hillman Bridge.

Map: Historic Hillman Bridge in the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Water Trail (SRWT)

From Suwannee County, you can get on US 90 northbound, go into the Agricultural Inspection Station, and turn right onto NE Drew Way just before getting back onto US 90. While near Suwannee River State Park, NE Drew Way in Suwannee County goes through private land, so don’t stray from the road.

Also from the Town of Ellaville marker or just north of the bridge there are trails leading east to Second Magnitude Suwanacoochee Spring on the Withlacoochee River, just above its Confluence with the Suwannee River. That spring has an old wall from a late nineteenth century rock bath house pool.

Hillman Bridge is often confused with the Historic Suwannee Springs Bridge, upstream more than 22 river miles, just up from the US 129 Bridge between Jasper in Hamilton County and Live Oak.

Old Hillman Bridge by Ebyabe on wikimedia, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0

They are easy to tell apart, because of no grafitti on Hillman Bridge.

David Bulit, Hillman Bridge, Abandonedfl.com, December 1, 2018, Hillman Bridge,

Winder Josephus Hillman was born on June 19, 1857, in Warren County, Georgia. His father died when he was a teenager and his brother moved to Texas in search of better opportunities. Winder attempted following his brother but made as far as Live Oak before running out of money. He decided to settle down in Live Oak, working various jobs such as carrying luggage from a local hotel to the train station and as a printer for The Banner of Liberty, a precursor of the Suwannee Democrat. He eventually began working in the naval stores business under Henry Wyse and Charles K. Dutton. When George Franklin Drew was elected into office, he established a convict lease system in the state. The state of Florida leased half of its convicts to naval stores companies to work in their turpentine camps where Hillman became a guard at one.

Within eight years, Hillman was in charge of 400 convict laborers and proved to be such a leader that he earned the nickname “Captain”. He opened up his own turpentine camp in High Springs which proved successful before a storm destroyed his operations. He opened another camp in Inverness before expanding his operations throughout Central and South Florida before becoming a director of the Consolidated Naval Stores Company of Jacksonville, the largest naval stores trader in the United States. He was dubbed the “Turpentine King” by friends and family and remained one of the largest manufacturers of turpentine in Florida for many years.

Hillman retired in 1902 and sold off most of his land and business interests. Having lived in Jacksonville for some time, he and his wife Lela moved back to Live Oak. He invested money and time in several farms throughout Suwannee County and built a road to his private farm he called Hillmonia located 13 miles south of Live Oak. The road would later be called “Hillman Highway” and is now US-129. He was an original stockholder in the First National Bank of Live Oak and organized and erected the Suwannee Hotel, a famous city landmark once located across from the Courthouse. Hillman was also vice president of the Live Oak Publishing Company which printed the Suwannee Democrat at the time. Through all his business ventures, Hillman became Suwannee County’s first millionaire.

Hillman served as a city councilman when City Hall was constructed in 1908 and later served under Live Oak native Governor Cary Hardee as the first chairman of the Florida State Road Department. He not only advocated for the building of roads throughout the state but also invested his own money into doing so. After the construction of a new truss bridge of the Suwannee River, many wanted the bridge named in his honor for his advocacy.

The story continues that the State Chamber of Commerce thought naming the bridge after the Suwannee River would be better because of the Stephen C. Foster song, but it ended up being Hillman Bridge.

Please read the entire writeup.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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